After a dust-up via e-mail earlier this week, city and county officials have reached an agreement with Los Angeles Marathon organizers that will provide runners with free bus and train rides on race day March 4. The for-profit marathon will foot the bill for participants' fares, while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will pay for extra trains, buses, drivers and security to accommodate at least 13,000 additional riders.

A war of pointed e-mails erupted Wednesday over the propriety of offering free bus and train rides to Los Angeles Marathon participants, with County Supervisor Gloria Molina taking swipes at race organizer William Burke and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The source of Molina's irritation: a city proposal to have the Metropolitan Transportation Authority foot what she and the agency estimated to be a $300,000 bill for freebie rides on race day, March 4.

In an effort to increase ridership, Los Angeles County transit officials said Friday that they would slash fares on several bus lines for a week, beginning Feb. 18. Bus riders will pay just 50 cents to ride any one of 18 bus lines in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, South Bay and the Westside. The standard fare is $1.25 each way. Officials hope the promotional fare will encourage motorists to try public transit. For more information, go to www.metro.net.

The Bus Riders Union has appealed a federal judge's ruling that ended a decade of court supervision over Los Angeles County's massive public transit system. In October, U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. denied the advocacy group's request to extend his jurisdiction over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Lawyers for the organization had argued that the MTA failed to adequately reduce overcrowding on its busiest buses.

In an effort to reduce holiday traffic fatalities, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will offer free bus and train rides on Christmas and New Year's eves. Free transit service will be available from 9 p.m. Sunday until 2 a.m. Monday and again from 9 p.m. on Dec. 31 until 2 a.m. on Jan. 1. For scheduling and route information, call (800) COMMUTE or visit the agency's website at www.metro.net.

A giant boring machine, nicknamed Lola, pushed through the dirt beneath Boyle Heights on Thursday, marking the completion of a subway tunnel that will eventually connect downtown to East Los Angeles. "This is a huge breakthrough, literally and figuratively, for this community," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who grew up near the Boyle Heights construction site at 1st and Lorena streets. The twin 1.

John B. Catoe Jr., the transit official credited with negotiating an on-time labor contract with bus drivers, said Tuesday that he was leaving L.A. to lead the Washington, D.C., transit agency. Catoe restructured services in L.A. County as deputy chief executive of the MTA since 2001.

A federal judge said Thursday that he will decide next week whether to extend his oversight of public bus service in Los Angeles County past its upcoming expiration date. The order, known as a consent decree, has forced transit officials to spend more than $1 billion over the last decade to make bus travel safer, cheaper and more convenient. It is set to expire Oct. 29. Attorneys for the Bus Riders Union, a transit advocacy group, asked U.S. District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr.

Loaded with 40 senior citizens, the express bus traveled from the Jewish Family Service Center in North Hollywood to the nearest subway station and back, part of a workshop to explain how to use the Los Angeles County transit system. The riders, many of whom never had ridden a city bus, were in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Some wanted to end their long dependence on the automobile. Others had lost their driver's licenses or planned to give them up because of infirmities or traffic accidents.

As they prepare to set spending priorities for the next quarter-century, Los Angeles County transit officials are bracing for a head-on collision over where to build the next light-rail line. Should the Westside's proposed Expo Line be extended all the way from downtown to Santa Monica? Or should Pasadena's Gold Line grow 13 miles east to Montclair?